Bill’s Rugby Awards 2018
It is that time of the year again. The southern hemisphere shuts down for the summer. Those who can, head for the beaches, rivers, and swimming holes to beat the heat. Up north they are battening...

Light at The End of The Tunnel?
Super Rugby might, just might, survive SANZAAR’s suicidal attempts to suffocate the competition to death, taking all of the southern hemisphere’s domestic rugby into the grave with it.
I will not bore you with...

Kiwis Announce Their 2019 Super Squads
Thirty-three new players feature among the 190 professional players contracted by New Zealand’s five Super Rugby franchises for the 2019 season.
The five New Zealand based Super Rugby franchises, the Blues, Chiefs, Wellington, Crusaders and...

How Deep Is The Talent Pool?
The 2018 Rugby Championships is done and dusted. Rassie Erasmus’s first seven months in charge of the Springboks produced so much more than many had expected. Starting from a below-zero base, he hauled the...

New Law – More Confusion?
I have often wondered whether it is a deliberate tactic of the various functionaries that sit on the plethora of committees and councils at World Rugby headquarters to make constant changes to the laws and...

A League of Nations?
It seems that World Rugby are looking for a complete change to the current international calendar. This despite World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper being quoted as saying: “We’re looking at a number of different, potential models...

Rugby At The Crossroads.
Back in 1986 Columbia Pictures released a movie, Crossroads, that was to become an iconic film of the age, celebrating blues music, while telling the tale of a legendary musician, Robert Johnson, who had sold his...

The Case for Central Contracting Grows.
The news that six Springbok squad members have signed contract extensions with the Lions has been widely welcomed by fans of South Africa’s top performing franchise.
On Tuesday, the Lions confirmed that No 8 Warren Whiteley,...

Going Down The Drain
Sanzaar Slowly Strangling Southern Hemisphere Rugby To Death.
Super Rugby is dying!
Anybody watching the Super Rugby Quarterfinals must have noticed the empty seats in all four stadiums hosting the games.
A paltry 8500 spectators pitched up to watch...

TMO’s To Be Put Back In Their Boxes!
In a move that will be welcomed by every single rugby fan on the planet, Television Match Officials may be stripped of their rights to interject (read: Interfere) during rugby matches. This...

SANZAAR To Review The TMO!!!
I very much doubt whether any of SANZAAR’s suits have read any of my frequent complaints about their officials and match officiating faux pas and match-influencing blunders. They are far too busy and important to...

Eating at Sanzaar’s
There is a story doing the rounds.
It is about Chef, who owned and ran a restaurant in a big city. It was a good restaurant, an upper-class fine-dining place, focussed on classic French cooking. A restaurant that...

Make Your Own Biltong!
Rugby without biltong is not much fun, especially if you are a South African ex-pat living somewhere far away where nobody has heard of the stuff of your dreams.
In fact: Life without biltong is simply wrong!
If...

Seattle Seawolves Major League Rugby Champions
The US professional competition staged its very first final in San Diego on Saturday, and the Seattle Seawolves won the game, and the title, beating the Glendale Raptors 23 – 19.
Seattle, which lost...

What is Wrong in Australia?
A series loss to England in 2016, followed by losses to Ireland and England again at the end of that year. Losing to Scotland twice and England once again in 2017. A series loss to...

Conrad does a Ronan.
Conrad Smith takes a coaching job.
I am always interested in retired players that decide to put something back into the game.
They stay in the world of rugby by continuing their involvement as coaches, managers, referees and...

England’s South African Woes
As we head into the third Test between the Springboks and the visiting England team, we already know that the series has been won by South Africa, which gives the home side an opportunity to relax...

It is still broken!
An Article by Mark Reason in New Zealand’s Stuff makes interesting reading.
Those that read my article titled “It’s Broken” posted on the 30th May, in which I commented about the dysfunctionality of the Sanzaar Judicial system,...

Springboks vs England
Series Preview
The sideshows are over; Super Rugby has hit the pause button; the utter waste of time in Washington DC is consigned to history in a file marked “Why?” and the real work of the month of...

It's Broken!!
Sanzaar’s Judicial Review System Is Broken!
Sanzaar’s Judicial Review system comes under the spotlight again. Their most recent forays into dispensing “justice” has again raised the hackles of rugby enthusiasts across the world.
Wildly disparate sentences, strange decisions regarding a...

It’s Broken! Fix It!
When you see a storm brewing outside, when those heavy bellied purple clouds are stacking up, and the lightning is flashing continuously as the thunder gets louder and louder, closer and closer, you would be a...

Eddie’s Squad
Eddie Jones has ignored the advices of the likes of Clive Woodward and Martin Johnson and gone ahead with the inclusion of Brad Shields in his 34-man squad to tour South Africa in June.
Jones has included seven uncapped...

Quo Vadis, Stormers?
Coaching Blues….
As the middle of the Super Rugby season passes us, and the final stretches of the competition loom, another season kicks off.
It is the season of speculation.
Speculation about coaches and their coaching futures.
When results are poor,...

The Pick-a-Boks Show!
It is that time of the year again!
Winter is upon us, sneaking in through the wide open windows and doors of summer, tickling the base of your spine with tendrils of iciness that we all hoped would...

A Giant Awakening?
After the Pearl Harbour attack on 7th December 1941, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is frequently quoted as having said:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
There...

Cheating to Win
The recent furore surrounding the Australian cricket team and their somewhat clumsy, amateurish even, attempts to cheat on the field pf play has occupied my mind during recent days.
The rancour that has greeted the downfall of Australian...

Derby Dangers!
The 18-team Super Rugby format of 2016 and 2017 was doomed from the very first. Too many teams, too many fixtures, too much travel, too many mediocre teams, and simply too much rugby. Spectators, fans, and even idle...

Israel’s Follies
I wonder how Israel Folau will respond when Nigel Owens is appointed to referee a Test featuring Izzy in the colours of the Wallabies? I wonder what Michael Cheika will say if Owens is forced by on-field circumstance...

Judicial Jokers
I have previously been strongly critical of Sanzaar’s judicial processes and the leniency of sanctions applied to those who transgress the rules and laws of the game of rugby. I have written about the issue on numerous occasions...

Schadenfreude
(Schadenfreude: the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another.)
The sports loving world is indulging in an orgy of Schadenfreude at the moment. The Australian cricket team have...

RUGBY LAW CHANGES: SEASON 2017/8
(With thanks to Sam and his fellow bloggers at RugbyStore.co.uk)
Here is a link y'all might like to try:
Some friends from up north have gone to an enormous amount of trouble to analyse and explain the...

Where is Average Joe?
Thoughts About The Game
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone
Girls have picked them every one
When will they every learn?
When will they every learn?
Pete...

The Sunwolves. An Exercise in Futility?
What exactly are SANZAAR trying to achieve with the Sunwolves?
We were told that SANZAAR wanted to promote and support the development of rugby in Japan.
We were told that they wanted to gain a foothold...

Err, Just a couple of questions, Rassie…
An open letter to Rassie Erasmus.
Hi Rassie,
Congratulations! There are many of us that are very pleased with your appointment as Director of Rugby at SA Rugby, and as successor to Allister Coetzee as...

The Not-So-Secret Secret is Out!
Rassie Erasmus is the new Bok coach.
Johan (Rassie) Erasmus was born in the town of Despatch, an industrial town neighbouring Port Elizabeth, some 45 years ago. He is one of many sporting greats to...

Uncontested Scrums: The Law Clarified
The 2018 version of the Rugby Law Book might have been edited and simplified but. In truth, those simplifications are merely cosmetic and/or grammatical. The Laws might be easier to read, but that does not...

How Low Can You Go?
Last Saturday I watched rugby ethics sink to a new low.
France’s replacement scrumhalf, Antoine Dupont, went down with what appeared to be a knee injury. He, without any assistance from anyone, started pointing at his...

Hello! Look over to your right under your login options you'll see our newly added forum index (We're calling it 'The Clubhouse') There you find 'The Scrum' where you can open any topics and comment on other's. Subject to...

Rugby World Cup - Canada Qualify
Canada are the 20th and final qualifier for Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan after beating Hong Kong 27-10 in the final game of the repechage tournament in Marseille on Friday.
They take their place in Pool...

Bulls' Shortlist Three
The whole process has seemed as slow as the ox-wagons that brought some of the Voortrekker settlers to the patch of veld that is now known as Pretoria or Tshwane, in the Gauteng Province, of South Africa....